The Mechanic

Chapter 8: Adam (3)

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The hijacking of Eden's North American servers became major news in the general world, with reports and speculations about it all over the Internet for days. For a time, the ordinary world was burning with fear, anger and hatred towards China, a country where male refugees such as Paradise Lost were concentrated. Men were further portrayed as cruel and cunning, with wolf ambitions, always trying to regain their privileges and trying to put all women in slavery again. savage creatures. Many people in the United States even took to the streets to demand that the government and allied forces carry out air strikes on Paradise Lost.

But at the same time, there are also many human rights activists and environmentalists who sympathize with them, and even a considerable number of academic elites who advocate against the use of nuclear bombs, which are almost deadly terrorist weapons.

Canada, which accepted Paradise Lost, has become the object of accusations by the United States and the object of ridicule in Asia and Europe. However, Paradise Lost has long since gotten rid of the control of the Canadian government and is no longer different from an independent country. But Paradise Lost is in Canada after all. If an air strike is rash, it would be equivalent to violating the territory of other countries. Coupled with the discord between the U.S. Presidential Cabinet and Congress, it is difficult to make any decision quickly. On the other hand, Paradise Lost has a lot of advanced weapons, and there are even rumors that they have terrifying biological and chemical weapons or even nuclear reactors in their hands. Therefore, neither Europe nor Asia really wants to swim in this muddy water for fear of retaliation.

And what kind of advice the other Eden servers have given to the leaders of various countries has not yet been announced.

This buys Paradise Lost time to deploy its defenses.

For a time, the entire Paradise Lost entered a certain state of tension that can only be experienced during the preparation period. A dark cloud of anxiety hovered over everyone's heads, and the number of fights and troubles increased several times than usual. Such a tense period is not unfamiliar to Paradise Lost. Surviving in the cracks, it is very likely that the day before the festival and the New Year, it will be razed to the ground by the nuclear bombing of the coalition forces the next day.

In the Lab, it seems to be still calm. But Zhang Xun felt that there was an invisible sword hanging over his head and was in danger. He didn't even dare to go out these two days, because too many unfriendly and reproachful eyes peeped at him like thorns all the time. Although he should have been used to this kind of sight, it would be bad if someone kidnapped him and forced him to enter the Lab. He even stayed in the Lab for safety.

Adam's progress has been rapid, and through constant practice, he can already hold chopsticks or a pen with his hands. Zhang Xun stood in the monitoring room next to Adam's room and watched Adam try to repair an AR projector with simple tools through the one-way mirror. He was bent over the table with tweezers in his hands, and the hand that used to hold the gun was now doing extremely precise work. Obviously Adam's hands are still shaking a bit, but the dexterity and firmness of his fingers have surpassed most of the guards.

While watching, Zhang Xun quickly tapped the computer keyboard to record all his observations. He thinks Adam is generally used to his body.

At least when it comes to physical controls.

He still wasn't sure how Adam would react to all the emotionally stimulating situations. Emotions are probably more difficult for Adam to adapt than a physical body. Obviously some simple hormonal changes can drive people to make choices that a rational situation would never make.

For human beings, emotion and reason cannot exist independently and are naturally blended in the evolutionary process. But to a machine, emotions are like a collapsing dam, like a hurricane, like a gust of wind coming in, something completely out of control and unnecessary.

And this is the entry point for Zhang Xun's plan to domesticate Adam.

Zhang Xun closed the monitor, picked up his folder and walked into Adam's room. Seeing him, Adam stopped.

"Did you sleep well?" Zhang Xun asked formulaically.

Adam replied, "I had a dream."

Zhang Xun raised his brows slightly and sat down beside Adam, "What did you dream about?"

"I dreamed that I was in a narrow place like a box. I sawed it open with a saw, but there was nothing outside."

Zhang Xun asked, "Do you have any special feelings? For example, disappointment? Fear?"

Adam asked rhetorically, "Many humans believe that dreams are meaningful. Some believe that they can predict the future, some believe that dreams reflect inner desires, and some believe that this is an evolutionary mechanism. What do you believe?"

Zhang Xun thought for a moment and replied, "I don't think the definition of a dream is necessarily accurate. Maybe we just refer to many illusory experiences that seem to have a commonality as dreams, but in fact they are not necessarily the same thing. And the mechanism is not all the same. So as long as those theories are supported by enough experimental data, I think it is possible. As for your dreams, maybe you are more inclined to realize your wishes. You want to escape from the human body, because You feel it's limited and unknown. It could be that you want to escape this lab, but you don't know what's out there."

Adam said, "I didn't really want to escape. Now I feel that having a human body is a necessary experience. You can't really understand people without experiencing human perception."

Zhang Xun nodded slightly, opened the folder, and put a few photos in front of Adam.

The first photo is from a long time ago, of a scrawny child lying on the ground about to die, with a vulture squatting beside him waiting for his last breath. The second photo is of an old man in tattered clothes, holding a piece of steamed bun with both hands like a dead tree and devouring it, but his eyes, which are pressed by the loose and wrinkled skin, are empty. The third chapter photo is of a couple kissing. That couple is none other than James and his ex, a handsome young man. This is the photo of him and his ex that Zhang Xun asked for from James.

"Look at these pictures, how do you feel?"

Adam's eyes flicked across the three chapters of photos, then simply said, "The first two photos are in my database, and I've seen them."

"I know you may have seen it, but what do you feel?" Zhang Xun tried to guide, "For example, do you feel tightness in your chest? Or a sore nose? Anything that is different from the usual neutralization situation. "

Adam looked at him and shook his head in confusion, "No."

"Do you feel nothing?"

Adam looked at Zhang Xun for a while, then said confusedly, "How do you want me to feel?"

Zhang Xun thought for a while, and suddenly ordered Pan to play a movie called "Artificial Intelligence" from a long time ago. When Zhang Xun saw this movie for the first time when he was a child, he cried so hard that he didn't believe that anyone in the world could watch this movie without shedding tears.

A small robot crosses the distance between space and the world, traverses countless dangers, and bids farewell to friends one by one, just to see his human "mother" side who has long abandoned him.

At the end of the movie, the little robot is sleeping on the bottom of the sea. After thousands of years, human beings have become extinct, and he is awakened by a group of alien visitors. Those benevolent aliens used his mother's remnants of DNA to make a copy of a mother for him, but for various reasons, the mother only survived for one day. The little robot finally played hide-and-seek with his mother, listening to his mother tell his favorite story. The long night was approaching, and he watched his mother fall asleep, peacefully waiting for the eternal parting.

Zhang Xun pretended to be calm and took out a tissue to wipe away the tears and snot that had spilled out accidentally. He turned his head and saw that Adam's face was still expressionless.

Adam saw Zhang Xun's expression and realized that he should give some evaluation, so he commented seriously, "If the central hardware of this robot is still made of silicon material, there will be no hormonal changes similar to those of humans. His behavior of looking for his mother is impossible. It's just a normal reaction according to the original program, not "love" as defined by human beings." He paused, then looked at Zhang Xun in confusion, "You were crying before, which means you feel sad. Why do you Feel bad about how the robot is programmed?"

Zhang Xun: …

That night, Zhang Xun received a message from James asking him to go out for a drink, but this time he agreed. Among all the pubs in Paradise Lost, the one he and James most often go to is a bar called Hawaiian Sunset. holding a hand-rolled cigarette. There are no singers singing, and the music played is old and slow-moving. Many young guards think this place is too old-fashioned and boring, and rarely come here. Sitting at the bar, drinking, reading and playing cardboard games are mostly regular customers.

James ordered a large beer, gulped down half of it, and talked about their group of hunters' latest purchases from the arms dealer. Zhang Xun turned the martini glass in his hand, and occasionally gave a few polite responses and feedback, but James, who knew him too well, could still see his absent-mindedness.

"How about your side? Is that Adam cooperating?" James grinned and teased, "Looking at your unlucky look, did he cause you trouble?"

Zhang Xun was a little surprised that he would ask about his work, but he still sighed softly, "I can't talk about it. He is very cooperative, but... I am now starting to worry about what omissions I have made in the process of serenity... Because I doubt him. There are no normal human emotions."

James looked very interested, put his face in his hands and asked, "Oh? Why are you so suspicious?"

So Zhang Xun told him about his various failures in trying to arouse Adam's emotional reactions in the past two days. When it comes to the final "Artificial Intelligence", I get a little angry. "He only has such a comment, can you believe it? This is my favorite movie when I was a child!"

James sighed, "Yeah, you cried so much that it scared me..."

Zhang Xun glared angrily, "That was when I was nine years old! Can you stop talking about it?"

"You said it yourself first, brother!" James learned more exaggeratedly how he wiped his tears when he was a child, which attracted the attention of the people around him. Seeing that Zhang Xun was about to throw a whole glass of wine on his face, he put away his stern look, repeatedly saying "I'm wrong, I'm wrong" in Chinese, raising his hands to surrender.

"But, seriously, I don't think it's necessarily that he doesn't have human feelings. After all, a considerable part of his brain is connected to the human brain. Could it be because... he hasn't experienced those situations, so Can't you feel the same way?" James said, shoving a french fries into his mouth, "For example, if you've never been in a relationship, don't you think it's weird to see those who have lost their love crying hysterically? "

After I finished speaking, I realized that Zhang Xun had never been in love before...

Zhang Xun glanced at him, but he didn't seem to be offended, but fell into some kind of contemplation.

There is some truth to what James said.

Even with the "hardware", Adam lacks human experience, so it is difficult to understand the meaning of those sad scenes. Deriving emotional responses and meaning from experienced events is an important way for people to understand the world. Without this step, character is naturally incomplete.

But how to get Adam to experience more? Should he be released from the Lab

That's too dangerous...

Seeing that Zhang Xun actually started to seriously think about his proposal, James was actually a little bit of a scumbag and got the affirmation of the Xueba. But he soon showed a hint of hesitation, "But I said brother, are you sure that robot is not lying to you?"

"Lied to me?"

"He's collected so much data on human behavior, he can even predict group behavior and it's accurate every time. He should know what kind of reaction you can expect from him, right?"

Zhang Xun nodded, "I also considered this possibility, but he is still in the adaptation period for his body, and his control is not so precise. If he wants to lie, his micro-expressions will be very obvious, and Pan can detect it. So for now, he can't lie. He also knows that his pretense is useless, at least at this stage."

James nodded, but there was still a haze in his eyes, and he said seriously, "You must be careful. That thing... can play the entire human being in the chief."

Zhang Xun knew that James, like most people in Paradise Lost, was very wary and fearful of machines. He smiled at James. Contrary to James, once he mentioned the machine, a bright spark would ignite in Zhang Xun's cautious eyes.

However, no one expected that the next moment suddenly a deafening loud noise exploded on the ground, the whole earth trembled violently, the wine bottles and glasses on the wine rack smashed all over the floor, and the lime on the ceiling poured down like a torrential rain. The originally quiet bar turned into a pot of porridge, and people rushed out screaming. James lifted up a fallen table, while Zhang Xun helped an old man in his 60s who was being held down by the table to stand up and stumbled towards the exit.

Outside the bar, the dark night sky was burning.

It was the protective shield that enveloped the entire Paradise Lost, constantly taking the brunt of the superbombs dropped by the stealth bombers whizzing by in the sky. The fire rippled along the surface of the shield like ripples, as if the sky had turned into a sea of fire.

"They're starting air strikes!" James' voice tightened.

Zhang Xun said to the old man, "Go to the bomb shelter!"

The old man hurried away. Zhang Xun turned to run, but was grabbed by James, "What are you doing? Why don't you go to the officer's shelter with me!"

"No." Zhang Xun said, "Adam is still in the Lab."

"What about Adam at this time!! Do you want to be blown up?"

"I am his mechanic, and he is my responsibility." Zhang Xun looked at him seriously and calmly, "Don't worry, Lab has a certain protection system, I will be fine. You go first!"

After he finished speaking, he ignored the call of James behind him, went against the fleeing crowd, and strode towards Lab.

The author has something to say: Thanks to the little angels who threw the mines~: 2 chains, 2 chains; 1 Xia Ran; 1 Xia Ran;

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution~: 66 bottles of wnnc; 18 bottles of Lingku;